Lanny Davis on Obama Adviser Dan Pfeiffer: He's Too Inexperienced

The prickly attitude of White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer as he answered questions about the IRS scandal on the Sunday's network news shows reveals an inexperienced aide at work, says Lanny Davis, who was special counsel to President Bill Clinton.

"He had some poor choice of words that are a reflection of inexperience,'' Davis told "The Steve Malzberg Show'' on Newsmax TV.

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"[He is] young and inexperienced . . . I don't know how old he is, but [he is] young in tone."
Pfeiffer went on NBC's "Meet The Press," CBS' "Face the Nation," ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos," and "Fox News Sunday" and pointedly said the administration would not participate in a "partisan fishing expedition.''

He also said the question of whether any laws were broken in the IRS scandal was "irrelevant."

"I have a general rule . . . dealing with the press corps. Even if I was personally offended by a question, or even if the question itself was offensive, I felt that the press had a right ask me . . . and I had to answer rather than criticizing the question,'' Davis said.

"And the worst thing to do is to do it on television. It's one thing for me to have an argument with a reporter on the phone, like what a jerky question that was. But that's not doing it on television.

"Dan Pfieffer needs to get some experience about not criticizing the question but just providing a straight forward answer.''

The prickly attitude of White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer as he answered questions about the IRS scandal on the Sunday's network news shows reveals an inexperienced aide at work, says Lanny Davis, who was special counsel to President Bill Clinton.